This year’s presentation of the theater award named after Les Kurbas was cancelled

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In Ukraine, they decided to cancel this year’s presentation of the theater award named after Les Kurbas. It is given to theater directors for their contribution to the development of modern theater art. This decision was made by the Awarding Committee at a meeting on February 8, the press service of the State Agency for Arts and Art Education reported. They added that this year the State Academy of Arts received 21 applications from directors. However, after discussing these works, the Committee members decided not to award the prize. The Committee explained that they allegedly did not find works that could claim this distinction. “The Les Kurbas Award recognizes not the contribution of one or another director to the development of stage art in Ukraine, but a specific performance submitted by him to the competition. Unfortunately, in the opinion of the majority of Committee members, works that would perfectly meet the criteria specified in the regulations on the Les Award Kurbas did not appear this year,” said the head of the Committee, theater critic Serhii Vasiliev. Read also: Important premieres in 2022: how Ukrainian theaters created miracles under fire. He clarified that the presented performance should have a “searching, innovative character, features of experiment and resonate with the trends of the modern European scene.” “Unfortunately, none of the works submitted this year met the specified requirements,” Vasiliev said. Under the State Arts Council’s post about the cancellation of the award, commentators leave opposite assessments. “I’ve always considered it a bad decision not to award first place, because it’s a slap to everyone and a “you’re all shit” sticker. Not to award anything is even more so. It’s a negative for the entire Ukrainian theater, which is going through incredibly difficult times, and which has already been condemned to the destruction of the Rashista,” she wrote head of the dramaturgy department at the National Theater Arts Center of Les Kurbas, Ned Nezhdana. “A strange decision. Of course, you can hide anything under pathos. … No one authorized the jury to give an assessment of the level of the theater space. Their only function is to choose the best from the offered. Everything. Period. No money? So maybe this is the place to start?” – commented director Oleksandr Miroshnychenko. “I have a strange feeling about that. On the one hand, I am proud and support this approach, on the other hand, the solidarity of the trades… But it’s cool, everything is even,” says director Yevhen Lavrenchuk. “It’s a worthy decision. It’s a pity that there is no laureate, but lowering the award bar is not an option either,” added theater expert Iryna Chuzhinova. Read also: Ukrainian theater abroad: performances and projects that create an impression of Ukraine In addition to Vasiliev, the Committee for awarding the Les Kurbas Prize included the chief director of the Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theater Dmytro Bogomazov, chief specialist of the program department of the state institution Ukrainian Institute Anastasia Hayshenets, the first deputy director for creative issues of the Chernihiv Regional Academic Ukrainian Music and Drama Theater named after T.G. Shevchenko Andriy Bakirov, Doctor of Art History Nataliya Vladimirova, Chief Director of the V.A. Afanasyev Kharkiv State Academic Puppet Theater Oksana Dmitrieva, General Director-Artistic Director of the Kherson Regional Academic Music and Drama Theater named after M. Kulish Oleksandr Kniga and Chief Specialist of the Department of Creative Industries and Socio-Cultural Development Victoria Loginova of the Arts Department of the State Academy of Arts. Applicants for this year’s award were announced a month ago, in January. Among them, in particular, were Maksym Golenko with the play “Sasha, Take Out the Garbage”, Lyudmila Kolosovich with the play “Cry of the Nation”, which the Mariupol Theater showed in Uzhhorod, Valeria Fedotova with the children’s play “Blessing the Animals and Children”. The full list can be found at the link. Performance “Sasha, take out the trash”. Photo: Vasylko Theater The Les Kurbas Award was founded in 1995 by the Ministry of Culture and the Union of Theater Actors of Ukraine in honor of the Ukrainian director, actor, theater theorist, playwright Les Kurbas. It was awarded once every two years before Kurbas’s birthday – February 25. And already in 1997, it was made annual. Theater directors can receive it for their contribution to the development of modern Ukrainian theater art. For this purpose, a production that premiered in the previous year is submitted for the award. The first laureate of the prize in 1996 was the artistic director, director and only actor of the One Actor Theater “Scream” Mykhailo Melnyk. Last year, director Tamara Trunova received the award for the play “The House”. Read also: Front-line cultural Mykolaiv: it does not survive – it lives

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